Our Days Are Numbered

Chapter 29

I had gathered the heads of the camp in a private meeting, all the heads except for one. Porta.

“it’s come to my attention that a lot was swept under the rug, there were more issues with the camp than I had thought and last night’s breakthrough showed every single one of them. We have a decision to make,” I said looking around the room.

Each one of the men looked at Alice sat in the corner of the room keeping to herself as she listened to what had to be said

“do we stay? Or do we go?” I asked the air become thick with tension, no one had ever suggested leaving well that is what I had thought until three hours ago. I had learned that my father had suggested the same thing.

“I remember your father having this exact same meeting, we all thought him crazy, but we were the fools,” Matt said looking down at his hands, he had lost his best friend with the herd coming through the camp.   

“Was that the reason for the cars? And the bus” Bradley said nodding towards the door, “You knew something was going to happen?” he narrowed his eyes at me and stood up to his full length.

“No, I just knew we would have to move soon”  I looked at him his posture softened but only just.

“There are a lot of children ad pregnant woman in this camp, you understand that makes us vulnerable when moving,” he said some of the men nodded as he finished speaking

“it does yes, but not to the point that it will be completely impossible, we get the camp notified and get everyone to pack what they can carry and move on. Walking in the streets may as well be safer than the camp at this moment. We are running low on food and that happened overnight.”

By this time Alice was sitting forward her eyes darting from one man to another. As she watched them her eyes found mine. they were wide and she looked like she was about to cry. I gave her a small smile, the men were talking in hushed voices. Matt straightened up and looked me square in the eyes

“All in favor of finding another camp, say I” A course of ‘I’s sounded around the room. “then it's time to make plans and get on the way,” Matt said.. Grannville looked at me his chest puffed up as though he was proud. He garbbed me and kissed my temple before we got into the plan on the move that would be on the way in a few days

PORTA POV

 “You need to work on getting everyone against her,” I said hitting my hand against the table, the bulldog I found could be quite useful now that he lost his prize to another man, he would do anthing to get back at the man that had just come in and turned everything upside down.

“how am I to do that, she ran around trying to get everyone to safety last night while you hid in your room” I turned to him I could feel my anger getting the best of me. I  took a big breath before I answered him

“reason my boy, I see no reason why you can not see how she put the lives of everyone in danger, how she will continue to do so if she gets them to leave the sfty  of this camp.” I smiled at him before I sat down behind my desk. It was easy to get into his head, it will be easy to get him to do as I say.

“I think the time has come” I started standing up again and walking over to the window, the people outside were so busy running about that they hadn’t a care in the world other than the task at hand

“It's time,” I said again “that find another second in command, someone that isn't working off emotions, someone more suited to the job” Devin had kept quiet the whole time, I turned around to see that he was still there. He had a hard mask on his face, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking as he stared at the table in front of him.

“who would you have do that? Matt?” I could hear the hatred in his voice as he spoke Matt’s name. I smiled at that,

“No, He wouldnnt do, far too close to Zoni, But you, my boy,” I said smacking his cheek “with a bit of shaping up we could have you running this place like a champ. He stood up, ah yes I hit a nerve well. He didn’t say anything more but walked out the door. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the simple-minded bafoon, yes he would make a good lapdog, but all in time. And I had all the time in the world

HANNAH POV

Word spread like wildfire about the plan to get everyone to a new camp, everyone spoke in hushed tones as you passed but somewhere happy, others looked terrified and some just downright seemed to reject the idea altogether.  I watched Scott as he tried to quieten down the baby. Weird ‘the baby we still hadn’t named him, we couldn’t agree on a name and when we did agree on t just sounded wrong to call him by it. for now, we resorted to calling him the baby until we could figure out a name. I took the baby from kissing Scott’s nose when he looked at me and huffed in frustration

“Will happen soon,” I said” just give it some time, he is in the arms of a few people during the day” 

“not the issue I am having,” Scott said looking out into the distance, “when the group goes,” he said slowly “we are staying, we will not be taking the risk, not with a new born” he looked at me his face was a hard mask and I couldn’t hell what he feeling  

“You cant be serious?” I asked shocked at what he just said,

“I am dead serious, she is going to get the camp killed if we leave, surely you must see that not everyone can be so stupid as blindly follow her into the dark. There is no guarantee out there, here we have a change” I stared at him as he spoke, I didn’t want to fight but I was pretty sure my husband had just lost his f*****g mind.